Most project-based industries such as construction, shipbuilding, and software development etc. should generate and manage project network for successful project planning. We suggest a set of criteria of good project network generator such as network generation efficiency, quality of network, and economics of system development. For the efficiency of the planning, the first criterion, we decided to take a CBR approach. However, using only previous cases is insufficient to generate a proper network for a new project. By embedding rules and constraints in the case-based system, we could improve the quality of the project network: the second criterion. The integration of CBR approach and the knowledge-based approach makes feasible the development of the project network generator and improves the quality of the network by mutual enhancement through crosschecking the knowledge and cases in the development and maintenance stages. For some complex project network planning, a single-case assumed project network generation methodology is refined into Dynamic Leveled Multiple Case approach. The methodology contributes again the efficiency and effectiveness of project network generation and reduces the efforts of the system development.

Daewoo Shipbuilding Company, one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, has experienced a great deal of trouble with the planning and scheduling of its production process. To solve the problems, from 1991 to 1993, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Daewoo jointly conducted the Daewoo Shipbuilding Scheduling (das) Project. To integrate the scheduling expert systems for shipbuilding, we used a hierarchical scheduling architecture. To automate the dynamic spatial layout of objects in various areas of the shipyard, we developed spatial scheduling expert systems. For reliable estimation of person-hour requirements, we implemented the neural network–based person-hour estimator. In addition, we developed the paneledblock assembly shop scheduler and the longrange production planner. For this large-scale project, we devised a phased development strategy consisting of three phases: (1) vision revelation, (2) data-dependent realization, and (3) prospective enhancement. The DAS systems were successfully launched in January 1994 and are actively being used as indispensable systems in the shipyard, resulting in significant improvement in productivity and visible and positive effects in many areas.

Spatial scheduling considers not only traditional scheduling constraints like resource capacity and due dates, but also dynamic spatial layout of the objects. Automation of spatial scheduling is particularly important when the spatial resources are critical bottleneck resources, as is the case in the shipbuilding industry. To develop a spatial scheduling expert system for shipbuilding, a methodology for spatial layout of polygonal objects within rectangular plates is first developed. This study is then extended to the methodology for spatial scheduling, including the time dimension. The methodology is applied to the scheduling of Daewoo shipbuilding to build a system DAS-CURVE. DAS-CURVE is successfully operational and its experimental performance is remarkable.

Daewoo Shipbuilding Company, one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, had difficulties with planning and scheduling its production process. To solve the problems, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Daewoo have been jointly performing the DAS (DAewoo Shipbuilding Scheduling) Project for three years from 1991 to 1993. To develop the integrated scheduling systems, several technological breakthroughs were necessary such as hierarchical architecture between systems, constraint directed graph search, spatial scheduling, dynamic assembly line scheduling, and neural network based man-hours estimation. Besides these technological research issues, we adopted the phased development strategy, which consists of three phases of vision revelation, data dependent realization, and prospective enhancement. The DAS systems were successfully launched in January 1994 and are being actively used as indispensable systems in the shipyard resulting in a significant improvement in productivity and reengineering of the scheduling process.

This paper seeks the sufficient search space for the expert systems locating rectangular and arbitrary-shaped objects placed without rotation within a two-dimensional rectangular space. We found that for the layout of rectangular objects, the convex vertex set of feasible allocation space is a sufficient space to determine a feasible layout. We also found that for the layout of arbitrary-shaped objects, the boundary point set of the feasible allocation space is a sufficient space to determine a feasible layout. These two theorems are proved by developing two respective parallel translation algorithms. These theorems show that the search space can be significantly reduced in finding a feasible layout. Since these theorems were discovered while we were developing a spatial scheduling expert system, we have empirically tested the performance of the reduced search space with real world examples. According to the empirical test for the convex polygonal objects, the vertex set of feasible allocation space is satisfactory enough as a search space although the vertex set is not a sufficient space.